Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The University of Manitoba was recently awarded a $7.4 M from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to establish the Manitoba Regional Materials and Surface Characterization Facility. A Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) laboratory was established as part of this facility. The departments of Geological Sciences, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and several other researchers greatly benefit from the SIMS laboratory at the University of Manitoba. A theme of this proposal is to enhance a collaborative study of biogeochemical carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles on various temporal scales and in different environmental settings as well as the understanding of alteration that these biogeochemical signals experienced by diagenesis, metamorphism, radiolysis, and subduction to the mantle. Recently, Fayek and Bekker established a CFI and RTI funded stable isotope laboratory at the University of Manitoba. The laboratory has two gas-source mass-spectrometers connected to four peripherals: two elemental analyzers (EA), thermal conversion elemental analyzer (TC-EA) and GasBench II. Combined, this infrastructure permits isotopic characterization (e.g. C, S, H, N, and O) of diverse geological materials and waters. However, the infrastructure for sample preparation and characterization for stable isotope analysis is neither adequate nor efficient at the Department of Geological Sciences. Specifically, equipment to prepare large uncontaminated sample powders, binocular microscope with a camera to hand-pick and document mineral separates, and carbon and sulfur analyzer to measure organic and inorganic carbon and S contents are either outdated or lacking. Therefore, the infrastructure requested here will be used to establish and advance a capability that currently either does not exist or not fully functional at the University of Manitoba, but is necessary for the cutting edge research in stable isotope geochemistry of the applicants as well as other researchers at the University of Manitoba.